The Sweeter Times
by Artemis Day
Summary: Sixteen year old Jane Foster is outside stargazing when a boy falls from the sky at her feet. He's irritable, dressed weird, hot as all hell and apparently the Norse God of Mischief and Lies. Jane would've vastly preferred falling asleep outside again to this. Lokane.


**A/N: Let me first say that this fic will not be updated for some time. I know I've said that before, but I'm serious this time, and I say that not only because I don't have any more of this written as of yet, but also because I have other stories that need to be finished that I've had going long before I was even aware that Marvel Comics had made Thor a superhero. They have to take precedence.**

**It's really only one story, one story that I am ten chapters away from finishing and want to get done as soon as possible. As of today, that fic is my top priority. I will of course update my primary Lokane fic, Lokiday, wherever I can, so don't worry about that. That story is NOT going on hiatus any time soon.**

**As for this story, it's a little idea I've had for a while and something I've never really seen done for this pairing, which is a shame, because I think it would be cute. Here's hoping I can do that right. This story, when it's officially started, will (probably) be ten chapters long. It is the first in a trilogy of stories, all of which will (probably) be ten chapters.**

**I can't say for sure when this will be continued. I posted it several weeks ago on my tumblr, but I wanted it here too as a sort of guarantee that I will complete it. I hope you like the first chapter and will look forward to more soon.**

**Ciao!**

* * *

The moon was nearly full, trapped between it and the waxing gibbous phase. Jane Foster had studied the moon's phases extensively, and out of all of them, waxing gibbous was the one she looked forward to least. On nights like this, she would sit outside her house, staring at the sky and all the little stars twinkling like fireflies. She would try not to focus too much on the moon, or else she'd notice how very close it was to being full and how horribly uneven it looked in it's attempts to reach that final, pivotal phase. She saw far too much of herself in that. It had all the potential to become something great, something amazing and beautiful, but it always fell short. Of course, in another two days it would become a full moon and she'd still be stuck on the ground with her dreams unreached for God only knows how long. It might not have been that apt a comparison after all.

Maybe she was just thinking too far ahead. She was sixteen years old and barely into the new school year. Most of her current goals went no further than finishing that book report on The Great Gatsby (a book she'd liked more than she thought she would), and passing biology with her head still attached to her shoulders.

Anyone who ever said high school got easier after your freshman year needed to either be dragged into the street and beaten or forced to relive all four years of high school repeatedly until the end of time. Freshmen year had been all but a nightmare, and not just because of any personal tragedies Jane might have been dealing with at the time. Sympathy from her peers had extended about as far as a few unwanted pep talks from her teachers (most of whom didn't seem to have any idea how to talk to her) and a brief reprieve from the bullying a 'geek' like her might've otherwise been the target of. Jane, always something of a loner, mostly kept to herself and her studies. Sophomore year was just more of the same, with the addition of a few so-called 'popular' girls decided she was finally fair game and reminding her daily what a worthless dork she was. Jane mostly just ignored them.

She was a junior now, passed the halfway point from start to finish, but still not feeling like she'd accomplished anything. On some days, she'd pull out old report cards and read down the line of As with a small smattering of B pluses. Science was the only subject to remain a perfect string of As from sixth grade on, something that had always been a source of great pride for her and her parents once upon a time. (How many times had she walked in on them bragging about her to their friends?) Sitting in the backyard on this chilly October night, with that depressing almost-moon in the sky, Jane was struck down with a gloomy feeling her streak was about to come to an end.

And it was all because of Mrs. Drangoon, her forty-something biology teacher with the thin framed glasses and the even thinner face, who could have been pretty if only she'd stop frowning and glaring at everyone she saw. She was the reason Jane was outside in the first place, ignoring the mouth-watering smell of dinner that wafted out an open window. It was pork chops tonight, one of her favorite foods in the world. Too bad it wasn't enough to bring her out of her funk. Every time she almost felt better, she'd remember the crumpled up paper in her hand and the damning red marks all over it.

Jane lifted it back to her eyes, because she just loved torturing herself with the number on top. 72 percent, the lowest grade she had ever gotten on a science test. Two days she'd spent studying the material. It wasn't even a facet of science she was particularly interested in, but she saw it through. She memorized the reading and she did all the homework and the extra credit assignment and she went into class that day with a full night's sleep and a healthy breakfast behind her… and all she'd gotten was a barely passing grade and one of Mrs. Drangoon's trademark scowls that said, quite plainly, 'You will never amount to anything in life, so why do you bother?'

Jane had some pretty distinct memories of the upperclassmen telling stories about Mrs. Drangoon. Just last year, she'd been sitting in the lunch room alone at a fairly crowded table. Two boys, one dark-skinned and the other light, took the remaining free seats just a small ways away from her. The dark-skinned one had been right in the middle of a furious tirade.

"I can't believe we got a D, after all that work! And the way Drangoon was glaring at us- _what is her problem?_ Does she hate black men or just men in general?"

His friend had been nodding along silently and shrugged off the question. However, a girl sitting across from them with chewing gum in her mouth popped a rather large bubble and spoke up.

"Mrs. Drangoon is neither racist nor sexist," the girl had said. "She is equal opportunity. She hates _everyone._"

Six months later and Jane would have to agree.

With a truly pathetic groan, Jane crushed the paper over her face and let it slide down. Her arm fell over the side of her lawn chair. Her wrist brushed the caked on dirt and mud that kept the lawn chair rooted to the ground so tightly, Jane was positive it had been there even before the house was built. She still had her fingers clamped around the paper. Somehow, she couldn't bring herself to just drop it already. Maybe later on she'd see if Garrett wanted to start a fire. She had the perfect fuel for it. If only she could bring herself to actually do it.

Behind her, the back door unlocked and slid open.

"Hey, Jane!" a male voice called out. "What's going on? You ready to come in for dinner or are you still busy moping?"

Jane closed her eyes. She could feel the blood rushing to her temples already.

"Garrett, for the thousandth time, I'm _not_ moping." She rolled over and lifted herself halfway up to meet her cousin's gaze. "I'm just… thinking about things."

"Oh please," Garrett said with a snort. "You've been out here for an hour and a half rubbing that test score all over your face in shame. And for the record, I still say a 72 is a good grade. I would've killed to get scores like that when I was in high school."

"You weren't a science student," Jane argued. "I am. I can't just settle for grades like this."

"It's just biology," Garrett said with a shrug and an offhand wave at the sky. "Aren't you a star person or something?"

"It's the principle of the thing, Garrett!"

Her passion did little to faze him, as was often the case. Sometimes, Jane wondered if her cousin was genetically hard wired to never lose his cool over anything, particularly her. After living with him for two years, she wouldn't be surprised.

"Well, come and eat once you're out of this funk. Try and make it fast, alright? I will not hesitate to eat your share."

He walked back inside and Jane let herself fall back down. Something soft tickled at the back of her neck, but when Jane turned around, there was nothing. Not a gust of wind or a falling leaf. She must have just imagined it.

The rubber strings had dipped lower from the all the weight on her knees and it was making her back hurt. She adjusted positions a few times before giving up and going back to staring at the sky. To get her mind off the problem at hand, she sought out familiar constellations. The cloudless sky assured that none of them would be hidden from her sight. She quickly found Aquarius; Pegasus was a little more difficult. They were the only ones worth finding as far as Jane was concerned. Maybe she would have looked for others if her mood had been a little better. She traced the lines of the star groups, forming in her mind the shapes of the water bearer and the winged horse, shapes she knew like they were second nature.

It had the calming effect she had hoped for, but the void was quickly filled by the equally oppressive sense of boredom. How many times had she done this? Even when she didn't have a rotten teacher breathing down her neck. How often had she sat in this exact spot, looking at those same stars, dreaming of the day she had the means to trul understand them the way she longed to? How long before fear and pessimism in the form of a little voice in her head that sounded way too much like Mrs. Drangoon came and crush her dreams back down into a fine pulp like they always did?

With a long sigh, Jane threw the test paper aside. It swayed in the air for a while and landed square in a rain puddle left over from yesterday. She was almost satisfied.

"Sometimes, I really wish something different would happen," she said to herself.

She closed her eyes for a few minutes, following the sounds of crickets chirping until that became boring and she opened them again. She was just in time to watch a gaping hole open up in the sky and bring about a wind that gathered all the fallen leaves into the air. It was just another moment before Jane processed all this.

"Oh my God!"

She shot out of the lawn chair, dodging another bunch of leaves on her quest for cover. She found it behind the tented barbeque, ducking her head down until her breathing back to something resembling normal. In that time, the winds had only grown stronger. It was a wonder Garrett hadn't noticed anything and come outside yet. Hell, _nobody_ was coming to their windows from what Jane could see. She dared to raise her head higher. The hole appeared to have gotten bigger, though not by much. It looked about a foot long in diameter, and it was completely black inside. Not a single star penetrated its depths.

"A black hole…" Jane whispered in awe.

The sight was mesmerizing, completely doing away with any fear she might have had. The winds, sudden as they were, weren't strong enough to lift anything heavier than a twig. Jane found herself moving out into the open and getting closer.

"This can't be," she said, raising a hand up like she could touch it if she wanted to. "A black hole in Earth's atmosphere? That's just- that's not scientifically possible, right?"

Jane looked around, as if expecting some expert scientists to appear out of nowhere and provide a helpful and informative explanation for what was going on and why it was, in fact, completely normal and reasonable. When that didn't happen, Jane found herself going to very strange places in her mind. Her hands started to shake as endless possibilities came to her. Whatever this thing was, it could potentially be the scientific find of the century. It could be the key to humanity's further advancement as a sentient species. It could go down as one of the greatest mysteries in the history of the world, studied and theorized on for centuries to come.

And it was happening in her own backyard!

"I- I need to do something," Jane rambled, and now that she was going, nothing was going to stop her. "I have to tell someone, show someone. I should tell Garrett. I should go get him or- I should call the scientific community! Are they in the phone book...? What if it goes away before they can get here?! I should take a picture, just in case. Yes! There we go! Good idea!"

Jane turned on a heel and ran. The wind was picking up, and with it, her excitement. Her long hair splayed out behind her, getting leaves and twigs caught in its tresses that she'd have to pick out later when this was over.

"I should still have film in that throwaway camera Garrett got me," she was saying. "I just hope it's still in my dresser."

She made it as far as the back door when the wind abruptly stopped, and something heavy fell to the ground with a loud thud. Jane paused with her hand on the door and turned around. Dread filled her heart even before she saw the black hole close right back up and leave the sky pristine like it had never been there in the first place. With Jane's amazing scientific find gone, there was nothing obstructing her view of the very common and well known Pegasus constellation, as if it was taunting her.

"But... I didn't even get a picture…"

Her disappointment was interrupted by sound of groaning, and it definitely hadn't come from her or Garrett inside. In the middle of her yard now was a crumpled heap of something dark and long. Whatever it was, it was moving. It let out another groan, one that sounded distinctly more human than the first. A hand shot out, clawing at the ground for leverage as it- _he_ lifted himself up on his hands and knees. Black hair fall over his face, covering it from Jane's view, but she could still hear him.

"Ugh… Thor, what did you do now…?"

He looked up. Jane met his bright green eyes that were like nothing she'd ever seen before. They lit up his face somehow. She could see his every feature even with the minimal lighting. He was roughly her age, or at least he looked it. He wore his black hair long and loose, letting it brush the tops of his shoulders. His pale skin gave him an almost sickly look counteracted by the fullness of his face. More intriguing than his looks, however, were his clothes. They appeared to be all leather and metal and about ten different shades of black and green that Jane couldn't name. He was completely covered from head to toe and wore some kind of heavy coat over his armor. He flexed his gloved fingers once or twice as he shared her gaze and her stunned silence.

What happened next was fast, t_oo_ fast in a way no normal human should be capable of. The boy vanished from Jane's sight in one moment, only to appear inches away from her the next. He had her pressed against the wall with his hand over her mouth before she could react, and once her mind cleared, she easily recognized the sharpness of the knife held at her throat.

"Who are you?" the boy demanded. His voice was gravely and far too mature sounding for someone his age. "And where am I?"

Jane's fight or flight instincts kicked in here, much much too late. She squeaked against his hand, which he wouldn't budge. Any attempts to free herself were equally futile. However skinny this guy looked, he had the strength of a freaking bear!

He leaned in much closer, very much like a predator about to devour her, his prey.

"I'll allow you to speak," he said, loosening the hand over her mouth just a little. "And you will answer my questions truthfully, or else my blade will fly free and you will be dead before you hit the ground. _Do you understand?"_

With great difficulty (mostly thanks to his hand blocking the majority of her airways), Jane nodded. He released her mouth slowly, maintaining eye contact every step of the way. He seemed to be sending her a silent message in case she was thinking about screaming. 'Don't even _think_ about it,' it said.

_'Maybe I could just talk really loud so Garrett will hear and call the cops?' _she thought desperately.

Somehow, that seemed like just as bad an idea as screaming. When his hand was gone, Jane took a long and much needed breath and let it out without a sound.

"Where am I?" the boy asked again. "What realm is this?"

_'Realm?'_ Jane wondered. What was that supposed to mean? Falling out of a black hole must have messed with his circuiting or something.

"Uh…" Jane paused to swallow and get her thoughts straight. "You're uh… in New Mexico."

He seemed to consider that for a moment.

"New Mexico," he repeated, like the words were completely alien to him.

"Yeah, you know," Jane said, even though it was becoming clear that he really didn't. "It's a state. A part of the USA."

His face did not change.

"Uh…America?"

Nothing.

"…on planet Earth?"

She winced back, half expecting him to strike her for such a cheeky comment. Of course they were on earth! He knew that… right?

"Earth? Are you taking about Midgard?"

He sounded genuinely surprised. It was very much a welcome change from the forceful intimidation he'd been laying on all this time, but Jane was never going to feel better until that knife of his was gone.

Jane looked away, not at all knowing how to answer that one. She'd heard that word used to describe Earth exactly once before: when she was seven and her Dad's best friend, Erik Selvig, was telling her stories about the Gods and Goddesses his people used to worship. Come to think about it, this boy sort of reminded her of one of them...

Without warning, he let her go. Jane gasped and held her throat, searching for any signs of cuts or scratches. There were none. Now might've been a good time to start running, but she had a sinking suspicion he'd catch her before she could take one step. God only knows what he'd do to her then. For now, she was better off staying still and watching him circle the yard, glaring analytically at everything he saw.

"This can't possibly be Midgard," he said to himself. He stopped in front of the tool shed, where a couple of Garrett's barely used power tools were strewn about in the grass. He picked up a large saw, examining it briefly before tossing it aside. "We were there not a month ago, and the Midgardians were living in mud huts! They could barely start a fire on their own. Not even Asgard could evolve so drastically in such a short amount of time."

He picked up a couple more tools, always the most dangerous ones and always incorrectly. Jane would have loved to tell him so before he hurt himself, but she wasn't sure how any attempt at help would be received. At least he'd put the knives away. When he was finished, he threw aside Garrett's belt sander and pointed at her. Jane tried not to flinch.

"You are clearly lying," he said matter-of-factly.

"What?" Jane said before she could stop herself. Her fears were abated, however, when he merely waved her off and started for the fence.

"Enough, I will hear no more. You are useless to me." He grabbed the fence with one hand and vaulted himself over like some kind of Olympic gymnast. Without ever looking back, he disappeared into the darkness of her next door neighbor's bush garden.

Jane was unmoving in front of the back door right up until it burst open, and she whirled around to come face to face with Garrett's warm and confused brown eyes as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Jane, what is going on?" he asked. "Why are you just standing there? Are you coming inside or not?"

Jane looked at him, and then at the patch of shadows the boy had disappeared into. She looked at the spot in the sky where the black hole had appeared and spat him out. Finally, she looked at the puddle where the sopping wet, ruined remains of her biology test lay forgotten. It was starting to look really good in comparison.

"Jane?"

She turned to Garrett and forced a smile.

"Yeah, I'm coming," she said, walking around him into the house. "I'm feeling much better now, and I'm_ really_ hungry."

Garrett still seemed suspicious, but at the mention of food, his face lit up. "Well, thank God for that, because I was about to start eating without you."

He chuckled and went to get the pot out of the kitchen, while Jane took her usual seat at the dining room table, conveniently facing the window and the neighbor's bushes, where in her mind, she could still see that strange boy running off to parts unknown, and she wondered:

_'What the hell just happened?'_


End file.
